The Comanche people were in earlier days a part of the Shoshone people in Wyoming. They were good horsemen and had a good skill in hunting buffaloes, and they were also called "Lords of the Plains". It was the Comanche warriors who could shoot with their bows on enemies, hanging under their horses neck when the horse run at a gallop. The Comanches fought the Spanish in Mexico for more than 200 years. After that the white settlers in Texas, who had taken their land and best hunting grounds, became their worst enemies. The organization Texas Rangers was founded in the 1840s to give protection against the Comanches. Chief Peta Nocoma and his warriors made several attacks on settlers and on December 1860 Lawrence Sullivan Ross and a group of Texas Rangers were sent out to find Peta Nocoma. They found his camp on the banks of the Pease River. Peta Nocoma and his two sons, Quanah and Pecos managed to escape, but most of the indians were killed including 16 women. Peta Nocoma's wife, Cynthia Ann Parker, was´nt killed as she had blue eyes and a European background. (See below more about Cynthia Ann Parker)

In 1874 Comanche and Kiowa warriors started to attack settlers in Texas. In the beginning it was very hard for the army to take the indians into captivity, as they often already had disapperad as the army arrived to the battleground. The battle of Adobe Walls took place the 27th of June 1874 with a combined group of Comanche, Cheyenne and Kiowa warriors with the leadership of Quanah Parker and Satanta. The defenders of the Fort including Bat Masterson, were well armed and managed to drive the indians away, as they had great losses. More than 3,000 soldiers were moved to Texas from nearby states to solve the indian problems. Colonel Ranad Mackenzie at last found the indians winter camp and in the dawn of one September morning in 1874 he attacked the camp at Palo Duro Canyon. The village was destroyed and also food and equipment. They also took the horses away from the indians. That winter the indians had to surrender because of starvation.. Quanah was the most important of the Comanche chiefs. In 1875 he accepted that he was conquered and surrendered at Fort Sill. Later on he accepted that his tribe should live on a Reservation in Oklahoma. In the following 30 years he encouraged his people to develop their skill in farming.

Quanah Parker
1845-1911

Chief of the Kwahadi Comanches, son of chief Nokoni and Cynthia Ann Parker, who was taken away from the whites as a child, and raised by the Comanche people. Cynthia Ann Parker was taken away from her home only 11 years old in 1836 as the Comanches and Kiowas attacked Fort Parker in Texas. After 24 years in 1860 she was taken back by whites but she could never adapt to live as a white again. She died 4 years later shortly after her daughter´s (Prairieflower) death.

Quanah Parker lead the attack on Adobe Walls 1874 and was the last of the Comanche chiefs who surrendered to the army on the 24 of June 1875. He cooperated after his capitulation with the authorities and worked as an Indian police and was in 1888 appointed to be a judge in an Indian Court on the Reservation in Oklahoma.